Earth System Science @NHR
NHR experts from the fields of HPC and Data-Intensive Computing (DIC) support scientists in maximizing the efficiency and performance of their earth model systems
Contact: earth-system-sciences@nhr-verein.de
Earth System Science at NHR
Earth system science (ESS) is an interdisciplinary field of research that investigates the complex interactions between the various components of the Earth system. These include the atmosphere, hydrosphere (oceans, lakes and rivers), cryosphere (ice and snow), lithosphere (rock and soil) and the biosphere (flora and fauna). The aim of these sciences is to understand the physical, chemical, biological and social processes that influence the climate, the environment and ultimately the life on earth.
Earth system science plays a central role in climate change research. It describes processes such as the carbon cycle, the circulation of the oceans or atmospheric dynamics and temperature changes and their interaction with atmospheric chemistry. It provides the basis for earth system models (ESM) which, among other things, predict the future climate change. As a key area of research into our planet, Earth system science combines disciplines such as meteorology, geology, oceanography, biology and social sciences in order to develop sustainable solutions to global challenges.
In the field of modeling, the aim is to represent the Earth system as precisely as possible. New types of Earth system models (such as ICON, ICON-ART or EMAC) are therefore very extensive and complex. For a more precise and comprehensive physical description of the processes of the Earth system, more and more modules are being incorporated into the ESMs in order to overcome previous simplified parameterizations and obtain more precise results. Higher horizontal and vertical resolutions of the model grids enable more accurate results, but require continuously increasing computing power and data storage.
In order to meet these requirements, Earth system models are installed, ported and optimized on modern high-performance computing (HPC) systems, such as those of the NHR network. Experts from the fields of HPC and data-intensive computing (DIC) support the scientists in maximizing the efficiency and performance of their model systems. Various groups such as Simulation and Data Labs and Methods Labs have been established within the NHR network for this purpose.
Thereby the following centers are mainly responsible for earth system science within NHR:
1) Scientific Computing Center (SCC) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology:
https://www.scc.kit.edu/en/research/14969.php
2) Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Göttingen (GWDG):
https://gwdg.de/en/community-pages/ess-intro
3) Center for information services and high performance computing (ZIH) at Technische Univeristät Dresden
https://tu-dresden.de/zih/hochleistungsrechnen/nhr-center
4) Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) at Berlin University Alliance:
https://nhr.zib.de/en/research-focus-at-nhrzib
Contact (E-mail distribution list for Earth System Science at NHR): earth-system-sciences ∂does-not-exist.nhr-verein de
Contact for Website and ESS@KIT: ole kirner ∂does-not-exist.kit edu